A car, a bike, 2 days and 500 miles
Or: 4 people, a big bike (Honda Valkyrie) and a small car (Miata) cover 500 miles of Washington roads, 4 campsites, and several Llama farms.
The bike has just about as much storage space as the car, enough for 2 sleeping bags, pads, a tent and some extra clothes. However, it’s a lot harder to eat when you have a full face helmet on.
Our route took us up and over the North Cascade Highway, so we stopped to check out one of the power dams that provide power for Seattle. It looks like there’s enough water up there. No Llamas though. Apparently they’ve been moved due to cougar attacks.
We caught the tail end of a very leisurely motorcycle club heading up to the dam. We wasted quite a few corners at the posted yellow sign speed. While Miatas and Motorcycles are pretty well matched for touring, the car can take tight corners with more confidence.
Liberty Bell guards the top of Washington Pass. It’s a quick run downhill from here to Winthrop for lunch. Winthrop was a little overrun with a bumper crop of summer tourists, lots of cars and motorcycles. (Evenly mixed between Harleys and Valkyries) That’s what you get for a weekend in August though.
We noodled around for a while, filling up at Twisp where the Miata was outnumbered 6 to 1 by various motorcycles. A quick run to Chelan later and we’re dealing with the problem of finding a campsite on one of the major tourist weekends in August. We checked three campgrounds before being directed to a small National Forest campground 4 miles off the main road at 25 Mile Creek. I was stunned at the quality of the lawn at the full campsites, perfect golf course quality and neon green. You’d hardly know that there’s a drought on and we’re in the middle of a desert.
The road to the campsite was prefect twisty blacktop for three miles. Sorry, I don’t have pictures. I was Driving.
The people in the campsite next to us were amused when we pulled in, since they have a Harley and a red Miata.
A little zipping in the morning, and we are on a nearly empty road heading down to breakfast near Levenworth and then to go up over Beaver Pass. I’ve raced over this road in a bicycle race a couple of years ago, and I didn’t realize how much fun it could be. Empty, reasonably smooth, and squiggly yellow signs. Most were marked 30mph in a 55 zone. Perfect road to put a little distance on a motorcycle.
Finally, we pick up route 2 to go over Stevens pass, and catch the Old County Road on the way down. This road is a little wider than a bike path, and completely deserted. This is the one place that I have ever felt that my car was wide even when there was no oncoming traffic.
The last three pics were taken on that road.
The motorcycle had some advantages, better power above 4000 feet, more similar vehicles to wave to, and the general coolness factor of a flat 6 1500cc engine.
Cargo space was a wash, as was gas mileage. (Although the motorcycle has half the tank of the car).
The Miata had a cd player and a heater/ac system. They work well even though the top was down the whole time. It was easier to handle on twisty roads. Passing at 4000 feet was kind of dicey with the short passing lanes.
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